Day Before Landing, Shuttle Crew Eases Up

Published: January 30, 1992

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Jan. 29—
The astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery mixed work with relaxation today before landing on Thursday in California.

Its seven astronauts had worked virtually nonstop on some 55 scientific and medical experiments during a full week in orbit.

Tonight, One of the shuttle's small steering jets sprung a spectacular fuel leak that the flight engineer, William Readdy, captured with a video camera, but NASA ground controllers said it is not a concern.

A shower of fuel mixed with ice particles could be seen spewing upward from the rear of Discovery and Mr. Readdy said it looked like "we're in the middle of a thousand stars."

A NASA spokesman, James Hartsfield, said that the leak, which occurred when the small jet became too cold, was "not apreciable." The flow of fuel was expected to stop when the orbiter turned toward the sun and was not a threat to the mission, he said.

The crew was to return to earth today but was told to stay in orbit another day to collect more data for scientists from 14 countries. The shuttle will land at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, northeast of Los Angeles.

The chief task of the flight has been to study the effects of weightlessness on materials and organisms, including the astronauts.